


Fine Print

by canadino



Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 02:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7739500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canadino/pseuds/canadino
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nami makes some things clear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fine Print

“I like older guys,” Nami declared one afternoon, apropos of nothing in particular.  


“That is truly music to the ears,” Sanji said, setting down meticulously julienned fruits for the sake of the members of the crew who enjoyed a mid-day munch. Chopper, who was sitting on Robin’s lap as an extra pair of her hands held his notebook to take notes on as he flipped through his newest set of medical books, took a stick of apple. Luffy grabbed a fistful of pear sticks.   


“I said older,” Nami said quickly, as Sanji gazed at her meaningfully - which was a look she was familiar with, he liked to give her meaningful looks when he was declaring his dedication for her or when it was her turn for watch - and she decided to clarify. “I mean much older than me. Who dresses well and for his age. And not too old.” She looked at Franky and Brooke - meaningfully - but they did not appear to have heard; Franky and Usopp were examining each other’s prototype blueprints and giving each other comments and Brooke, as he was apt to do, was sitting and clattering his bones as the wind blew through his joints. “Older men just have this unmistakable charm and solidness to them; you know that women mature faster then men, right? When I was still traveling around before navigating for this crew, I found that a lot of younger guys think they can sweet talk you into following them with these lavish claims, but you don’t need glasses to see they’re just starting out and they don’t have a Beri to their name. It’s older guys who have an idea of what they’re out for and years of experience to show for it with authority and beautiful stoles and diamonds.”  


“Not all older guys,” Zoro said, just to be argumentative. He had a stick of melon hanging out of his mouth like a piece of straw. The look was vaguely appropriate.   


“You know what I mean.”   


“I don’t mean to play the devil’s advocate just to be difficult,” Robin offered, “but older men also are knowledgable in the way of tricks and techniques after many significant others to know what to say to put you in a possibly disadvantageous position.”  


“True, but you’re talking to an ex-thief. I think I can hold my own against any man who doesn’t have my best interests at heart; I would only be after his Beri in that case. But consider that now that he’s older, he won’t have a wandering eye - he won’t be in the ordinary striking range for most girls, so once a pretty young thing like me comes into his life, he’ll only be looking at me.”  


“If he can stomach it,” Zoro said. He found himself with a gut full of Nami’s heel.   


“One year can change a lot of things,” Sanji said, a weak response after having ample time to think up an argument for himself without sounding aged nor too wet behind the ears. “But why did you decide to bring this up now?”  


“I just want to be clear,” Nami said, “that I’d never go for anyone younger than me. Period. That’s all.”  


[=]

The six-o-clock hour in the evening was scheduled perching time for Luffy on the big, lion mast. The sun was just setting, beautiful with warm colors on still water and a clear sky, and although he’d seen many sunsets, he still took time to enjoy each and everyone one he had the pleasure of living through. His crew never questioned their captain’s whims, but if any of the kitchen crew (composed of Sanji giving orders, Zoro providing the muscle for kneading much dough, Chopper for checking the salinity to get the pickling just right), the crow nest crew (Usopp defending his blueprints like a frantic university student for his thesis in front of a skeptical Franky, with Robin taking minutes for the fun of it), or Brooke (sitting at the back of the ship clattering his teeth to match the rush of the water) bothered looking for Luffy, they would not find him sitting around the red, painted mane. But perhaps an eagle-eyed Zoro would see two hands gripping two ankles tightly around the top, stretched thin. Perhaps if Brooke eased his soul out and peeked over the railing, he would see Luffy hanging underneath the mast like a human hammock, and he would see Nami sitting on Luffy’s stomach, her hands in her lap in a show of utmost trust. 

“What were you talking about this afternoon?” Luffy asked. He would stretch his neck so he could get a better look at Nami’s face, but she didn’t like that when he first did it so he didn’t do it anymore. “Why were you saying you’d never like anyone younger than you? Don’t you like me, and I’m younger than you?”  


“It’s misdirection,” Nami said. “I wouldn’t expect the idea to come to you. It’s when you make people look in another direction so they don’t suspect what’s going on in front of their noses.”   


Luffy’s mouth went into a perfect circle and he sounded off impressed. “I didn't know that thing had a name.”

“Now you do.” She sighed. “It’s why you and the boys get in trouble all the time, because you all want to just rush in. Sometimes you just have to wait and think.”  


“Did you think about this?”  


“I didn’t think about it, which is probably why I got into it to begin with.” He laughed, probably because he didn’t get it, but she had a feeling he understood it very well. He had a habit of understanding when sometimes she would rather he not. But that was also a part of why she had gotten into it.   


“They’d never expect,” Luffy said confidently. Nami thought he might be wrong there, if the way Robin, and sometimes Zoro, watched her around him were any indications. But Luffy loved secrets, and if she could help him keep this one - no skin off her neck - it would be her pleasure. When she kissed him, after talk about her manipulations died down, she remembered that at first, she had expected it to be like kissing a rubber ball or a rubber glove, but his mouth was definitely warm and softer than she’d thought. And frankly, she really did like older guys, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch from the truth, but she thought - as Luffy swung them back both up toward the helm again and Zoro saw them as he was going to summon the others for dinner and said nothing - there were always outliers to even the most steady trend.   


**Author's Note:**

> The movies are really good at trying to get you to nod along to this ship. Thanks for reading.


End file.
